Celts Thriving Behind Ageless Allen

Ray Allen will turn 35 in July. On Sunday, he played his 92nd game of the season just three days after he shared the defensive responsibility against LeBron James. He scored 25 points on 16 shots to continue the Celtics' run of postseason upsets with a 92-88 win over the Magic in Game 1 of the Eastern finals.
When the Celtics traded for Allen in 2007, they predicted he would be unlike the great lost majority of shooting guards who lose their legs in their early 30s. They hoped he would be his generation's Reggie Miller, and that he is. On Sunday, he routinely outraced defenders Matt Barnes and J.J. Redick around the corner like a pinball on a roulette wheel. But, he added another destructive element by putting the ball on the floor and driving it inside.
The No. 2 seeded-Magic had spent the previous two days preparing for the Celtics to play through Rajon Rondo. Instead, the Celtics turned Allen into a primary ballhandler and played Rondo off the ball.
It went well because Allen's 14 NBA years have left him with the wisdom to know when to shoot or upfake, when to take it down the throat of the lane for a left-handed finish or when to pull up for a mid-range jumper or when to create for others. He has earned that insight without sacrificing his legs, but then that's what summers of hard work and day after day of running on the treadmill or showing up early for pregame workouts have done for him. He is old above the neck and young from the shoulders on down.
Boston's defense held Orlando to 20 percent shooting (4-of-20) to grab a 22-14 first-quarter lead that expanded to 31-16 after Orlando managed three shots and five turnovers over the opening five minutes of the second. As much as they succeeded in stifling Howard (3-of-10 for 13 points and seven turnovers) with the man-to-man defense of Kendrick Perkins or Rasheed Wallace, it was Allen who stuck them with the knives to punish them at the other end of the floor.
Just as Orlando was threatening a fourth-quarter comeback, Allen responded with a silencing mid-range jumper off the dribble. After the Magic had trimmed the deficit to 10 points, Allen caught a Kevin Garnett pass and connected on a three-pointer with 5:34 to go. When Vince Carter cleverly missed a free throw with 8.4 seconds remaining -- which was tipped in by Jameer Nelson sprinting in from the arc like a wing man recovering an onside kick -- it was Allen who sought the ball, was fouled and doubtlessly swished both free throws to finish the scoring and reclaim home-court advantage for the No. 4 seeded Celtics.
The Magic hadn't lost in 14 games since April 2, but their fluid offense congealed and forced Carter to go one-on-one for many of his 23 points. In the meantime, Allen was scoring smoothly in the flow, which should come as no surprise. Amid the injuries to Garnett and Pierce this season, he has been the most reliable of the Big Three all year.

Messi won the Golden Boot

Messi won the Goldenboot as the best attacker in Europe. The attacker of Barcelona had 34 goals in Premier Division and Didier Drogba was second with 29 goals in the Premier League in the UK. Antonio di Natele from Uldinese was third with the same amount of goals as Drogba. In this season Messi managed to score 47 goals in all tournaments which is a new record. The last record was made by C.Ronaldo who scored 42 goals in the season '07/'08. Manchester United had also a player who is in the history of the team - Denis Lou who scored 46 goals in 1963/1964 season.

Formula 1

The formula started this year is very different from the one before as new devices were allowed to be used by the cars, but then again not everyone used the new speeding devices becouse they make the cars havier which makes the car slower in long term. Still, one of the leading for now team in Formula 1 is Red Bull. Their cars have been improved with fast rate at the begining of the last championship and now they are heading to take the gold cup. In the third race we saw their real progress. Brown Mercedes the team which showed big progress during the last year didn't have enough speed to race for the first place. Ex champion teams, the team of Ferrari and mclaren, show their ability to compete for the first place but didn't show the same capacite as the red bull team. Everyone saw that Ferrari won in the first race and have not finished up to now after the first five players. This shows the result from the hard work to make their new and fast cars. Mclaren also get a gold medal and Hamilton showed real posibilities of their cars when they tries to leave behind the players of Ferrari and they won more than 2 seconds every lap. The progress which Reno showed should be mentioned because they got silver medal and were fast as the cars of Ferrari.

Patrice Evra: "Second feels strange"

For the first time in his United career, Patrice Evra has played a full campaign without winning the league - and he doesn't like the feeling one bit.

The Frenchman's honours list at Old Trafford is now book-ended by two Carling Cups - the victory in Cardiff just weeks after he joined the club during the January 2006 transfer window and this year's triumph over Aston Villa at Wembley. Naturally he'd much prefer to be looking at a fourth consecutive league title as his latest success.

"It was very painful at half-time when I knew that Chelsea were winning 3-0. It’s hard {to take], it’s a sad day today," Evra told MUTV.

"I can say congratulations to all my team-mates because it was not easy this year and to finish second is good.

"But it’s not my mentality. I’ve always said that if I don’t finish first in the league, I will feel like I didn’t do my job very well for Man United. When you play for Man United, you must always win. I’ve been here four years and this is my first [full] year when I haven’t won the league. I feel strange. Today is a very, very sad day for me."

When asked why United had fallen short of a fourth

“Five or six of them came after me. But I did quite well, I wasn’t completely soaked,” said Louis van Gaal after escaping his first beer shower relatively unscathed. “But I dropped my guard a little, and they came back at me.” During the lap of honour, Van Bommel caught the coach from behind with the entire contents of a three-litre beer glass. Van Gaal took it in good part: “It’s wonderful!”

Van Gaal's national championship titles:
Four times in the Netherlands: 1994, 1995 & 1996 with Ajax, 2009 with Alkmaar
Twice in Spain: 1998 and 1999 with Barcelona
Once in Germany: 2010 with Bayern Munich

Louis van Gaal has managed to win the title again. After he won it in his homeland (Nederland) and Spain now he won it in Central Europe in Germany. He has 7 championship titles and this makes him one of the most successful coaches. The coach was asked some question about the soccer season so far:

Q: How does your first title in Munich rank among your successes over the years?

Van Gaal: “Every championship is fantastic, of course – especially in your first season. I achieved that at Barcelona, and again here. And I’m also proud that I am the first Dutch coach to win the German championship. But as you well know, I haven’t done this alone, but at the head of a large staff.”

Q: What differences have their been from previous titles?

Van Gaal: “I have been champion with four different clubs in three countries, and each title has been special in its own way. With Ajax I won three in a row, there I built things up. That was a different experience from what happened here. In Barcelona I was fortunate that the club management very much believed in me, because I had many challenges to overcome in that first year. And with AZ Alkmaar, a small club with young players that had never won anything before, the championship was a really great achievement.”

Q: What is your success with Bayern down to?

Van Gaal: “The players believed in me from day one. That is the best thing that can happen to a coach. Together we always believed that we could do it, and success followed.”

Q: Have you changed during your year in Germany?

Van Gaal: “I already said in my first press conference that my personality was well suited to this job. I am still the same person that I was 20 years ago, but I have learned over the time, I can recognize and evaluate situations better.

Q: How has Dutch football influenced the new champions?

Van Gaal: “We have become champions in a way that not many others have done previously. We play very attractive football, we’re always looking to go on the attack and we always put the opposition under a lot of pressure. Most important is that we were on top in all areas of the game – we scored the most goals in the Bundesliga and conceded the fewest.”

Q: Why did you not rest your stars in Berlin?

Van Gaal: “Because I want to stay in top gear, that’s important. We have won everything in the key months of April and May. For example, I let Ribéry play for 60 minutes and rested him for 30. And I gave Altintop 30 minutes because he will probably have to play in the Champions League final.

Q: How do you now view the two finals coming up?

Van Gaal: “Every player wants to play in the game against Bremen and to win it, and even more the Champions League final. The challenge is to choose the ideal tactics that enable everyone to play at their best.”

Chelsea Champions of the UK with a chance of second title

Chelsea are the new champions of England after the last 38th round of the Barclays Premier League. With an amazing win of 8-0 against Wigan Atletic they managed to reach the 1st position in the table with a 1 point lead in front of Manchester United-the three-in-a-row winner of the same title before Chelsea. Chelsea proved their position and deserved the trophy that hasn;t been won since 2005. After maximum points won against the 3 major Enlgand clubs- Liverpool(2-0 and 0-2); Arsenal(3-1 and 0-3) and Manchester United(1-0 and 1-2), they got what they came for-the most precious title in Enlgand. Of course Chelsea set a new record in the tournament-103 goals scored in a sinlge season(2009-2010). Second, Didier Drogba became a goalscorer of the league with 29 goals(3 in the last match).Even though the team form London didn't advanced to the quarter-finals of the Champoins League that gave them more strength to win their matches and get the title. Now they have the chance of winning a second title(Enlgand league cup) against the team of Portsmouth which have finance problems and most probably will look to win at least 1 title recently. Roman Abramovich(manager of Chelsea) is finally proud of his team and will look after for many more titles.

Dirk Kuyt: "We must learn 09-10 lessons"

The Reds ended 2009-10 in seventh position following their final day goalless draw at Hull City.

Though European football is secure for next term, Kuyt accepts mistakes will have to be rectified if the newspaper headlines are to make happier reading in 2010-11.

"It has been a hard season and we did everything to change things," said Kuyt.

"Up until 10 days ago, we were fighting for a trophy but it didn't happen. You can say we have to forget what has happened but, really, we have to learn from the mistakes we made.

"We've got to push next season and be bouncing from the start."

Kuyt also refused to blame uncertainty regarding the ownership of the club for what has happened on the pitch.

"Every player is interested in what is going on but, if I am honest, I can't blame that side of things for some of our performances," he said.

"We tried to stay focused with things on the pitch - that's what I did, as did everyone else. We just couldn't make good things happen for the club."